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The Color Line: Racial Norms and Discrimination in Urban Labor Markets, 1910–1950

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

William A. Sundstrom
William A. Sundstrom
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Economics, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053.
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Abstract

In both northern and southern cities of the United States, African-Americans faced a web of social constraints on such activities as housing, shopping, and everyday interpersonal interactions. These constraints had implications for the labor market as well. In particular, norms against white subservience to blacks played an important role in determining the racial composition of occupations. Close attention to the operation of such social norms can add much explanatory power to conventional economic analyses of discrimination based on human capital and taste for discrimination.

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Type
Articles
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The Journal of Economic History , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 382 - 396
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1994

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